Danny Ainge: Player We Want Will be Available at No. 3

Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said Monday that he believes the player the team would have selected with the No. 1 pick in Thursday’s NBA draft will be there when the team picks at No. 3.

“I think even before the lottery, we’ve been evaluating these kids for a couple years, and we felt like it was very close with the top handful of players and we still feel that way,” Ainge said in a conference call Monday after the Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers formally announced their swap. “We think there’s a really good chance the player we’ll take at [No.] 3 is the same player we would have taken at [No.] 1. So this was a great opportunity to acquire an impactful asset.”

Source: ESPN